Molly O’Connor/Winonan

Most college campuses become ghost towns during holidays.

It’s typically assumed that professors and faculty are the only remaining proof of civilization left on campus when students jump ship for spring break.

Some students may imagine their professors cooped up in their offices grading frantically while they themselves are off having fun.

But, this is hardly the case for most of Winona State University’s faculty.

This past spring break was enjoyable for professors who were able to leave the confines of their offices and have fun.

Like many of their students, some professors took off to visit family members.

Michael Bowler of the global studies and world languages department enjoyed his spring break with his daughters outside of Winona on the weekends, traveling to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to see his oldest daughter on the first weekend.

“She’s a theatre major, and she was in the play ‘The Crucible,’” Bowler said. “I took my younger daughter along with me. We had a great time in Stevens Point.”

Bowler and his daughter also went up to see the Gophers women’s hockey team play in their quarter-final game against Boston University.

Afterward, it was off to the St. Patrick’s Day Irish Music and Dance Festival on Sunday in Saint Paul, Minn.

Other highlights of Bowler’s break included cross-country skiing and celebrating his mother’s 92nd birthday.

That being said, it wasn’t all fun and games for Bowler.

“I mostly hung around here and graded papers unfortunately,” Bowler said. “I stayed here during the week, but the weekends were fun.”

So just how often are professors grading papers and tests? According to Bowler, “Always.”

“We had scheduled meetings, one of them I missed because I was busy grading, but we always have stuff going on,” Bowler said. “You still have to work, but you can get out and work at home.”

Spring breaks don’t always wind up being fun for professors. In Jim Armstrong’s case, this past break was the first spring break he was able to ever fully enjoy.

“I never have had a good spring break before, this is the first one ever,” Armstrong, a member of the English department faculty, said. “Usually I’m grading papers or something annoying like that.”

So, what did Armstrong do on his first fun spring break ever?

“I rode a bus to Chicago behind a Grateful Dead fan who talked for five hours about the Grateful Dead, so that was kind of interesting,” Armstrong said.

There were highlights and lowlights.

“When I was in Chicago, I stayed in The Palmer House, which I always love,” he said, “and basically spent time working on correcting papers.”

From Chicago, Armstrong traveled to his hometown of Kalamazoo, where he spent three days scanning digital images of his father’s slides from when he was a child. Beyond that, Armstrong drove to the Twin Cities and the Boundary Waters to enjoy snowshoeing.

So while there is work to be done by professors on their breaks, they are also able to get out and enjoy themselves.